Improvement in hats



N. PETERS. FHUTO-LITHOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON D C paar amm;

HENRY HAYWARD,

or NEW YORK, N. Y.'

Letters Patent N 93,616, dctedAugust 10, 1869.v

IMPROVEMENT IN HATS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom 'it 'may concern:`

Be it known that I, HENRY HAYW'ARD, of the city and county of New York, in the State of New York,

several reasons, less 'valuable than material possessing the stiffness in itself. Y

Hats have also been made composed wholly or in part of hair cloth, but such are objectionablein con-y sequence of the labor involved in their manufacture, and are obviously different in appearance and in qualities from'felt hats.

In alpatent granted to me, dated July the 21st, 1868, I have described a process of manufacturing what I call hair felt, in which horse-hair is wrought with cotton or the like yarns in a loosely-woven fabric, and then incorporated in a thickness of felt by applying wool or other felting-material on both faces and subjecting it to a felting-operation.-

Such hair felt has come to be an important article of manufacture, and` is known in theY trade under the name of Haywards patent hair felt.

I have now discovered that by modifying the manufacture, and afterward 'subjecting such. modified hairfelt to the same treatment as has been' before applied to common felt, that is to say,p'ressing1it into'the required convex forms, and holding it there for a little period with heat, I am able to producel'hats, caps, or the s\velledparts of hats and caps, yor the convex and stiff parts of such articles, greatly superiorin appearance, iu softness of surface, persistence of contour, and general texture, strength, and' probable durability, to

anything before known to me; and 'to eiect this great improvement with very little labor and cost, I employ silk in the raw or gummy condition as the warpiof my hair felt, and I treat the felt with hot dies ofthe proper form, in the press described in the patent of M. Morse, dated March 6, 1866, but I believe the machinesl known as Simonets, andvarious others,

may be used withl success.' Iconsider it necessary simply to 'strain the raw-silk-warped hair felt into the required dishing form, and to hold it there rmly under heat, wetting and otherwise treating itin the same manner as in producing hats from ordinary felt by such dies.

The accompanying drawings form apar-tof this specification.

Figure 1 represents a central section ,through a hat entire, upon a small scale, andA v Figure 2, a section of a port-ion lupon a magnified scale.

In fig. 2, A A, &c., are the horse-hairs, represented in cross-section;

B B, 8vo., are yarns of Araw silk or silk-waste inthe gum, which I: use instead of cotton or other ordinary yarns to form the warp of the woven fabric; and

CO is the wool, which is firmly felted into and through thewoven fabric, so that the whole forms a dense and elastic material, the same as is described in my patent above referred to, except in the fact that the warp is of raw and gummy silk, and that the extra stii` material thus produced stands in'and persistently maintainsthe proper dishing form. The raw-silk yarns are harder and stiffer than ordinary yarns; the ,gummy matter therein softens by moisture and-.heat in the act of shaping, and afterward resets, and'assume's-andv maintains .the form in which the material is moulded by the dies.

- 'lhe value ofthe raw silk in this manufacture lies inits great strength, stiffness, and elasticity, and in the property'it possesses of softening andnesetting around; so as to match to the several horse-hairs in the exact shape required, sonas to aid in holding the finished hat very strongly inform.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to -secure by Letters Patent, isf- A s/a new article of manufacture, a head-covering,

composed ofa layer of open-worked hair-cloth, secured. by .felting to one, or between two layers of feltingmaterial, substantially as described.

Intestimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HY. HAYWARD.

Yiitnesses Cues. E. FORMAN, Tnos. B.l Cnrrronn. 

